So apparently I got an email about being in this weekend beta like Talos... **** this, but at least it is free. I should at the very least give it a try though I'm skeptical. So I guess I'll be noobing up your guild/clan/whatever this weekend! And THIS time I ACTUALLY won't know anything about the game.

has anyone said that the consular story sucks balls yet? if not, the consular story sucks ballz.

What was the initial DL total, 12G or 15GB? Thing is a goddamn beast, guess I'll have to let it sit and DL overnight. Going into this weekend beta as a pure skeptic. While I loathe what Lucas did to his franchise other people have done good things with it ie. KotOR and Force Unleashed. I'm just not holding my breath over it and expecting a sci-fi WoW with more scripted events.

12? it was 30GB or something last time I installed.

Eh, it was a quick glance to me. I just saw it was gonna be a while, so I let it sit overnight. Would like to make sure I get in there and give it a good play this weekend. Interesting they still seem to be adhering to a 12/20 release date though, maybe it will be all ready to go by then.

'ready' is a relative term. This game could sit in development for another 12 months, always improving the state of the game. I think EA is getting impatient and went with a date where the game would be 'ready enough'.

It doesn't help that you have large groups of testers who either want this game to be SWG, or WoW and are flooding the forums with "this game needs x/y/z"

Possibly but all the **** on their site indicates 12/20/11 for release. It would be a nice fat PR problem if the 20th comes and goes and then they backpedal saying, "Well it wasn't ready."

yeah i think it was a 20gb download. i'll be playing this weekend for the first time

oh, I didn't mean that they might delay the launch. I meant that this game could have benefited from another 6-12 months of development, easily. But yeah, EA pulled the trigger on a release date with the mentality that the game is ready enough to launch

Originally Posted by Atreides

oh, I didn't mean that they might delay the launch. I meant that this game could have benefited from another 6-12 months of development, easily. But yeah, EA pulled the trigger on a release date with the mentality that the game is ready enough to launch

Well, its an MMO - from a content perspective, this isnt damning. The grind to max level is ****ing LONG in this game, so they could skate on end game and patch it later very easily. CoH did this, but their timing SUCKED and even when end game was finally added, it sucked (**** you, HamiRaids).

Engine and feature wise, Bioware has stated that they pretty much never give current-gen revisions to the beta testers; what you're updating to is already old compared to their internal builds. Seems like shooting themselves in the dick, especially graphically (they just included 4x AA in a recent build); they *know* there are leakers in every beta, posting video and screens. I dont get why they wouldnt attempt to defray harmful publicity by throwing the best looking engine in right away, or take advantage by showing off more.

YEAH FINALLY IN

THATS WHAT SHE SAID

any one have a working link to the client? having a ***** of a time logging into the site.

So wtf, were the invites for this weekend or later this month? The forums are just *wrecked* by beta login issues right now, and login is no longer possible.

Originally Posted by Excel

Well, its an MMO - from a content perspective, this isnt damning. The grind to max level is ****ing LONG in this game, so they could skate on end game and patch it later very easily. CoH did this, but their timing SUCKED and even when end game was finally added, it sucked (**** you, HamiRaids).

The main reason I wish they had more time though, is because I've never seen a developer do a beta as well as these guys have. Constant collection of feedback, in and out of game. And the fact that they are trying to give more to the community. Since E3, I've seen a lot of ideas from the community added to this game, and BW still has a huge list of stuff they still want to have implemented down the road.

You only get 1 launch with an MMO, and it's pretty much your barometer for success. Post-WoW, most MMOs have a decent launch, then dwindle in population as time goes on. I have no doubt TOR will have a strong launch, but the game could easily grow over time if it had that feeling of completion to it.

Patching in content (that should've been in at launch) doesn't win back the crowd who quits after the first month. If players regret their initial retail purchase, they'll likely feel jaded. I remember A LOT of friends following WAR's dev for 2-3 years anxiously, and completely walking away from the game after a week or two. Same goes for AoC or even FFXIV.

Originally Posted by Excel

So wtf, were the invites for this weekend or later this month? The forums are just *wrecked* by beta login issues right now, and login is no longer possible.

There was two sets of invites:

1. Everyone signed up for the beta received:

This email was sent to tell everyone that they will be getting another email in the near future about a beta weekend everyone is invited to.

2. Only a select few received:

For the Beta THIS WEEKEND.

Yay, got invited to the next testing weekend after this weekend's. I tried out sorc, assassin, and merc in the last test. Want to try out powertech and possibly an operative as well this time around.

So what server are the sith on? Nothing I have seen both here or in their offical forums seems to suggest any sort of server name.

Hasnt been decided, guild deployment hasnt actually happened yet.

Originally Posted by Excel

Hasnt been decided, guild deployment hasnt actually happened yet.

So... Everyone is scattered over multiple servers here? I'm seeing at least a dozen servers here, most likely more. I was under the assumption most of the people who were in the beta before this weekend were roughly same server. That would be the one I am looking for, or will I be called a noob because I couldn't find a name buried somewhere in these posts.

Personally I can't even play yet, I'm stuck in queue and if I try to quit I have to quit out of the whole game to pick another server. I know it's a stress test but FFS at least allow you to cancel queues and reselect servers easily...